SWAPMEAT Hands-On Preview – Uniquely Meaty

There were a lot of roguelites at PAX West, but perhaps none were as eye-catching as SWAPMEAT. This debut title by One More Game certainly drew a lot of attention at the convention, as the game no doubt does on a regular basis wherever it is shown off.

The colorful, zany action will intrigue most gamers. MP1st went hands-on for a few missions with the game, and we have our SWAPMEAT hands-on preview ready right now.

Swap Your Meat

At a basic level, SWAPMEAT is a third-person co-op shooter, with support for one to four players in a single party. It’s a roguelite, with a unique twist where enemies will often leave a part of themselves behind, besides the experience points that they also reward. These parts not only change your appearance, but also affect some aspect of your character. For instance, equipping a tread or tire-like set of legs, your speed would be greatly increased, and by pressing the assigned button, a huge burst of speed akin to afterburners will thrust you suddenly forward a great distance. You can combine that with other parts, say maybe some wings that allow you to jump an extra time in the air, to become a floaty tank that can traverse halfway across the map in one combo.

Everything you pick up and equip is limited. Body parts can become so damaged that they wear out entirely, so it behooves you to swap them out before that occurs. Each enemy type leaves behind a different part, so you won’t know which enemy to take out at first, so that you can quickly get the abilities you like the most. What each enemy drops intuitively makes sense; however, spider-looking enemies will leave behind a set of legs, which, when equipped, allow for extremely fast traversal for a short amount of time at the press of a button.

If any of this sounds complicated, it’s not. You can only have one of each body part, so essentially these parts replace abilities you’d see in traditional third-person loot shooters. While this does mean pre-game strategizing by having each party member choose a particular class type is not a thing in SWAPMEAT, those that can adapt on the fly should be able to wing it, and build a strategy out in the field once the first batch of loot is found. This makes for incredibly dynamic gameplay, where no two matches are ever the same.

Co-Op Not Technically Required

Even though I was playing on my own for this session, I still had a blast. The shooting felt nice, very arcade-like, but still with things to consider, like the range of my weapon (two could be equipped, one at a time), as well as remaining ammunition. That limited ammunition may have been a design decision to push for more usage of my body parts’ abilities, which offer unlimited ammo but a recharge time that varies depending on the strength of the ability. There was a lot going on, and concrete objectives to complete. Med stations were peppered throughout the levels we played on, and I used them sparingly, only when my health dipped below half, because the station would be unusable afterwards. Finally, after completing all objectives, I had to race to an extraction point, as the game piled on dozens and dozens of enemies in an overwhelming climax that threatened to derail all of my hard-fought progress. While I was enjoying killing a seemingly endless horde of enemies, a dev team member alerted me to a countdown that had almost expired, so I got on board before I was left behind. What a rush!

We spoke for a few minutes with Studio Co-founder/Game Director/Lead Game Designer Jamie Stormbreaker. He confirmed that the game is designed with co-op in mind, and there is drop-in/drop-out online co-op available, no matter what you are doing in the game. If you only have a few minutes to spare, that’s fine – drop in when you find the time on a friend’s game. You’ll still be rewarded for your efforts, no matter how small.

SWAPMEAT is a co-op game to get excited for. While this was a treat to play even solo, I can already see how chaotic and fun it would be to play with a group of friends or family. It’s absurd in all the best ways.

Add SWAPMEAT to your wishlist, and be ready for some frenetic body part swapping when the game launches In Early Access on Steam for Windows and Mac, sometime in October 2025.

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